i8 93 . NOTES AND COMMENTS. 171 



pages, "The Geology of Carmels Bay," by Andrew C. Lawson, 

 assisted by Juan de la C. Posada. As with most of the American 

 scientific journals, this one is extremely well got up, printing and 

 illustrations both being excellent ; but we would like to suggest to 

 our American cousins that the large size, thick paper, and enormously 

 wide margins of all these new journals is a mistake. It is all very 

 well to have one or two large handsome volumes, but when the 

 series mounts to fifty or one hundred, everyone will grumble at the 

 amount of space wasted. This is a matter in which we in the old 

 country are best able to form an opinion, for we have many journals 

 that have reached their fiftieth volume, and all true workers would 

 contemplate with dismay the idea of having to allow double the space 

 for each set. 



We regret to learn that the Midland Naturalist receives so little 

 support that its publication will be discontinued at the end of the 

 present year. 



Two numbers of an " Occasional Paper for Nyasaland" have 

 been printed and published at the Universities Mission Press, at 

 Likoma, an island in Lake Nyasa. They contain notes on Nyasaland 

 Timber, by Mr. William Murray ; and memoranda on the occurrence 

 of Garnets and Beryls, by Archdeacon Maples. In future the 

 paper is to be published four times a year, under the name of 

 The Nyasa News. 



London will shortly rejoice in another club. On and about 

 August 17, a perfect rain of circulars announced to the scientific 

 world that there was no club available " for social intercourse and 

 reunion" of the fellows of the various royal and learned societies. 

 We are glad to observe that so careful a distinction is marked out 

 by the promoters between royal and learned societies. On the 

 front of the circular is a list of " Gentlemen supporting the found- 

 ing of the Club," whose names can, with patience, be dug out of 

 the perfectly bewildering conglomerate of F.R.S. — F.R.S.G.S. — 

 R.Z.S.I. — Brit. Ass. [sic], — etc., etc., in which they are em- 

 bedded. Then follows the ground for establishing such an arcadia, 

 all for six guineas a year, and lastly, on the back of the circular, 

 comes a series of newspaper-like extracts from letters of the learned, 

 in which the " positive want " is stated with consentaneity, while 

 numerous wailings escape from extra-athenaeum clubites. The whole 

 is surmounted by a badge consisting of the American eagle, rather 

 out of drawing, with wings resembling the star-spangled banner, and 

 surrounded by an aureole, in which is hidden " Omnes artes inter se 

 continentur." Colonel W. P. Hodnett, late of the 2nd Dorset (54th) 

 Regiment, as hon. secretary, 63 St. James's Street, will attend to the 

 despairing. Sic iter ad astra. 



